The present invention relates to a V-shaped engine having a passage structure for coolant.
Conventionally, there has been known a coolant passage structure for use in a V-shaped engine provided with an outlet passage projecting forwardly of front faces of a right bank and a left bank. Such a passage structure is disclosed in, for example, Unexamined Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 62-66215. In the above passage structure, a water pump is provided on a rear side of the engine, and an inlet passage for introducing coolant to the water pump is arranged in a longitudinal direction in a space between right and left banks.
In order to reduce the size of the conventional V-shaped engine having a passage structure for coolant, the following modifications can be considered: The water pump is provided on the front end portion of a cylinder block and the inlet passage for introducing coolant to the water pump is arranged in the front end portion of the engine vertically from upper front portion of the engine to a space between the both banks. In addition, it is considered as a possible modification that an idle pulley for a timing belt is disposed forwardly of the space between both banks.
However, even with these modifications, if the outlet passage is arranged to project forwardly of the right bank and the left bank, the length of the engine will be increased by the projection of the outlet passage. Accordingly, the engine cannot be made maximally compact.